“Has it been tested?” Blank asked in a tone that was growing increasingly antagonistic.

“Yes, under very realistic conditions. Only by the company, though.”

“Then you have only their word that it works?”

“For the time being, I’d prefer not to disclose what I know, or how I know it.”

“So we have only your word.”

“That’s right.” Jack pushed his coffee cup away. With a few loud snaps, he opened his briefcase-they were sure he was going to withdraw filched lab results or a spreadsheet, some form of incontrovertible proof to back up his remarkable claims. He instead picked up the stack of slides and began stuffing them in the case.

Blank watched him. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Leaving.”

Very coolly, Jack said, “You finally got something right today, Mr. Blank. Congratulations.”

“You’re not finished, are you?”

Jack smiled and continued packing his briefcase. “Uh-oh, back to the dumb questions again.”

The accountant looked at Blank and explained the obvious. “I think leaving usually means finished.”

“I don’t get it, Wiley. You asked for this meeting.”

“You’re right, Mr. Blank. My mistake.”

“What are you talking about?” Golightly asked, unnerved by how quickly this was unraveling.

Jack snapped shut his case and looked up. “I hope you enjoyed the insults, because they were very expensive. Now allow me to leave you with something to ponder. This company can be had for as little as a hundred million. One-fifty at the outside. The first year, sales will almost definitely hit the four billion range. The second year, at least six. After that, it depends on a few variables.”

“Variables?”

Jack looked at them as if he was tired of having to explain such simple concepts. “The U.S. Army and Marine Corps are the obvious first customers. They’ll be pleading for all the polymer you can produce, as fast as you can manufacture it. And did I mention this polymer can hold dye? Take gray, for instance; a prosperous color. Imagine now if the Navy was persuaded to paint its ships with this polymer. Twelve aircraft carriers coated, head to stern, then a hundred destroyers, and three hundred assorted other warships.”

The jaws on the other side of the table were dropping. The numbers struck like bullets.

Jack continued in the same assured businesslike tone. “And that’s only the beginning. There’s a large private market as well-corporate limousines, police cars, bulletproof vests. And of course, the United States isn’t the only country with military vehicles that need protection. Marketed properly, I envision sales to reach the fifteen billion a year range.” Jack smiled. “Of course, I come from a small, backward firm. Meekness is bred into me. Regrettably, I tend to underestimate these things.”

The three men across the table suddenly found it hard to breathe. Their knees went weak. Had they heard right? The magic numbers hung in the air. The accountant was noisily scribbling figures on his beloved legal pad.

Four billion the first year alone-a two thousand percent return in only twelve months. Four billion! Why hadn’t Jack announced that at the start?

“Jack, sit down and stay a little longer. Please,” Blank pleaded, suddenly overwhelmed with affection for Jack Wiley. “There’s a lot more for us to discuss.” He tried a smile that came across like a tree tortured by the wind. “Please, Jack.”

Jack glanced at his watch. “My flight leaves in thirty minutes. I meet with a firm in New York in three hours. At five, I have to be in Pennsylvania for another meeting. Sorry, boys, busy day.”

“These meetings wouldn’t be about this polymer, would they?” Golightly asked, overcome with a sudden feeling of nausea. If this deal walked out the door, if it turned out to be half what Wiley promised, and if some other firm bagged Jack Wiley, he might as well throw himself out of the window.

If, if, if-three big ifs. A sickening feeling was telling him the ifs were about to become whens.

At least it wouldn’t be a solo flight: Blank would splat in the parking lot right beside him.

“I tried to warn you, Brian,” Jack said. “Three times. You blew it. It wasn’t an empty bluff, you should’ve listened.”

“Don’t be that way. It’s not personal, Jack, it’s business.”

“Exactly, it’s business.” Jack now had his case packed and was standing by the door. He turned his back on them and said, “I’ll listen to what the other firms offer. Then, maybe, I’ll get back to you.”

With that parting shot he was out the door, gone.

Like that, the fifteen-billion-dollar man disappeared.

The three men huddled together for a terrifying moment. Agreement came quickly and unanimously; a few frantic, sweaty handshakes and a firm bargain was violently sealed. What a disaster.

“You blew it,” he’d said-and he was right.

Their only prayer was to keep this calamity from the big boys upstairs.

They swore a solemn oath to carry this secret to their graves.

The existence of the taping system was known to barely a handful of CG’s most senior executives. Beyond that, there was just the small crew of closemouthed listeners hidden in the basement who monitored the action, sifted the nuggets from the useless chatter, and red-lighted anything alarming or worthy of interest to the big bosses upstairs.

Only the LBO boys were targeted. Only their conference rooms were wired. Consideration had once been given to a wholesale expansion, to tapping their phones, bugging their desks, even planting a few listening devices in nearby bathrooms. Put in enough bugs and wire to match Nixon’s White House. No way. As quickly as it was raised, that dangerous idea was discarded. The overhead of listeners would multiply sixfold. The chance of exposure would become immense. Why risk it?

The real action took place in the conference rooms anyway.

The system was a necessary precaution, the senior leaders of CG felt. At first, anyway. Over the years some of the LBO boys had been caught wheeling-dealing, cutting side deals, or committing CG to things that weren’t technically or even mildly legal.

More than perhaps any other firm in the world, the Capitol Group had a reputation that needed to be protected, whatever the costs.

Over time, the taping system acquired wonderful new purposes. The CEO and a few select directors frequently listened in to decide which of their aspiring LBO cutthroats had the right stuff and which needed to be booted out the door. Truth was, they enjoyed listening to the kids bicker and quarrel, raise the pressure, and go for blood. They loved having ringside seats at the most profitable game in town.

The full-time tenders worked out of a cluttered room in the basement, a small nook fitted with security cameras and a highly sophisticated taping console. They came and went through the service entrance at the rear of the building. They wore grease-stained coveralls, carried pails and brooms, and were coldly ignored by the snooty executives on the upper floors.

Mitch Walters, the CEO, had his big feet planted on his desk. His two big hands gripped the armrests as he craned forward and strained to hear every word, every nuance. The instant they heard Wiley’s farewell threat and the door close behind him, Walters punched a button.

The noise stopped. “Idiots. They underestimated him. He’s smarter than they are. Much smarter,” he announced for the benefit of the older man in the room.

Daniel Bellweather produced a weary nod. “You have to admire it.”

“You’re right, a perfect ambush. Didn’t let on till the very end.”

“Just let them act stupid, play like loudmouthed braggarts, then handed them their balls on a plate.”

Daniel Bellweather, or Mr. Secretary, as everybody in the firm still called him-without the slightest trace of affection-was a former three-term congressman and, for four years, secretary of defense under a mildly unpopular former Republican president. His tenure in the Pentagon had been somewhat rocky. There had been runaway spending on a few multibillion-dollar hardware programs that produced useless belly flops the military hated. Two martial misadventures that went horribly wrong and resulted in lots of corpses and hasty retreats. Then came the quiet revolt by a bunch of Army generals that had to be brutally quelled.